Believing In the Crests
by Ravyn89
Summary: Christmas is coming up along with Matt's concert. The old digidestined are all going but the newer one's are going to Ken's party. Suddenly two new digidestined show up with some unusual digimon. How will everybody react? MattOC KenOC TaiSora
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Before anybody says "they did it right the first time. They don't need you" either give it a chance, or go away! I don't want your opinion if you're going to say that and be mean about it. I've heard it plenty of times before and it's still my opinion that the ending ot season two SUCKED! There, I said it. Now if you don't like that opinion I suggest you leave. This fanfic is starting after the Blackwargreymon part of Season two. I'm writing this fanfic with my friend Kayhera. We're trying really hard to make this as realistic as possible and make our Digidestined as useful as possible as well. Also, Kayhera would like me to point out that Taru's digimon was not copied characteristically from the actual season. She made up all the characteristics about the digimon all by herself. Also my character's Digimon is based on a Digimon from the Tv show (not going to give it away) but a bit of the characteristics have changed a tad bit. Dying and coming back to life can do that to you, so I think it's realistic... Also, Taru's dad is referred to as "Minamoto-san". "-san" is basically the japanese version of "mr" or "mrs". Kayhera was having troubles figuring out what to call the dad so I let her call him by "san". I thought it sounded cool anyways, so if it annoys you, take it up with Kayhera...

Disclaimer: Er... own digimon? You've got to be kidding! If I did then I would be actually fixing the ending of season two... not writing a fanfic about it... But I do own Ami Nakahara! But Kayhera owns Hotaru "Taru" Minamoto. Okay, the last name is Koji's from Season four... I couldn't talk her into using another one that sounded familiar that I can't remember now... so I caved and let her use that one. I'm sure Koji won't mind since he's not in Season Two.

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At first it had been kind of funny how little Hotaru "Taru" Minamoto knew of computers though she was insistent to learn how to use the Internet so she could study. For a nerd she hardly ever played around with electronics afraid to break them… or something. The only thing really nerdy about her was her excellent math skills and she went to the same school as boy genius, Ken Ichijouji. Then there was the cooking and cleaning. How could anybody find it enjoyable? Every time Ami Nakahara called it seemed like Taru was folding clothes. 

The real annoyance at first when Taru had asked to be taught how to use the computer had been that Ami didn't live near by. She lived on the other side of Odaiba so had to ride the Subway there. When she had arrived Taru had changed out of her school uniform into her usual tomboy out fit with her baggy pants, purple shirt, purple bandanna and wrist bands. She rushed over to open the door but soon disappeared and came back with cookies. Ami had already started on the computer. After a while Taru's incompetence was just annoying.

"Oops!" cried Taru. "What I do?"

Ami, who had been leaning back in the chair staring at the ceiling with her hands behind her head, raised her eyebrows but didn't look at the girl.

"You pressed the power button," she yawned. The younger girl moaned and quickly turned the computer on. Then she stood up.

"I've got to start laundry," she said distractedly.

"Wha – " started Ami, sitting up straight.

But Taru had already left the room. Ami rolled her eyes and returned to the computer which had finally loaded up again. An icon flashed at the bottom and, distractedly, she clicked on it. A funny looking window opened up with this red light to the side. Ami blinked at it and moved closer to the computer screen. She could hear Taru moving around in the other room but the girl didn't sound like she was coming back right this instant. Suddenly the light turned green. Ami cried out and pushed herself backwards and out of the chair. She sat on the ground for a minute squinting in pain. When she looked up the screen went completely white and two bright lights came flying out: one toward her and the other out of the room. She heard Taru scream slightly but was too busy looking at the strange thing that had come out of the computer.

"What the…" started Taru, standing in the door way leaning on the frame and breathing heavily. "What _is_ this?" she cried, holding out a strange yellow device.

"Well…" said Ami, looking down at an identical orange one in her own hands. "Hey! How come I got an orange one? I hate orange? It so doesn't go with my outfits!"

Taru snapped her fingers. "Hello! Focus!"

"Hmmmm…" said Ami, blinking and looking up. "Oh yeah!" She looked back at the device. It was almost egg shaped with an antennae, a few buttons and a very small screen. She tried looking for a speaker or something but there wasn't one. "It isn't a cell phone, I'll tell you that!"

"I know what it _isn't_!" snapped Taru. "Where did it come from?"

"The computer…" muttered Ami, standing up stiffly and walking back to the monitor. The funny window was still open. "Hey, do you know what this is?"

"Of course not! I know nothing about computers, you know that!" cried Taru. "But how could these things come from the_ computer_? That's impossible!"

Ami ignored her as she clicked around trying to figure out what it was. It wasn't any program she had seen before and it didn't say it had a name. There wasn't any toolbars either, so she couldn't go to "Help" for information. She heard the girl come up behind her pressing buttons on the weird device. Though it was probably stupid, Ami didn't tell her to stop.

"You better not have broken my dad's computer…" muttered Taru, looking over Ami's shoulder.

Ami opened her mouth to say something but at that moment the weird devices beeped and the screen turned white again, glowing. The light got bright and brighter, filling the entire room until it seemed to fill Ami's entire body. It felt like she was being compressed and pressed through a tight tube. Then it was over and she was standing on a grassy floor with trees all around. She sighed in relief… then noticed her clothes. She was wearing a cute, baggy yellow shirt with a V-cut and orange cuffs. She was also wearing tight black jeans and a loose brown belt to which she clipped the weird device.

"Wait a minute!" said Taru in a high pitched voice. Ami looked at her and saw that she was wearing the same outfit. "Computers don't do this! _Where_ are we?"

"No clue… but I got a spiffy outfit!" said Ami brightly, modeling for the girl, but Taru wasn't paying attention.

"There aren't any forests near by, and especially not any like this. Besides, how could we haven't gotten to one just like that if there _had_ been one near by…" muttered Taru

"Enough!" said Ami, holding up a hand, looking away with her eyes closed. "Soon you'll start saying big words I don't understand. Let's just look for a way to get back from… where ever we are."

"Oh, I know! How about we find another computer," said Taru, suddenly looking very proud of herself, "and you can do whatever it is that you did back there and maybe, just maybe, we'll get back."

"Yeah… Will you believe me if I said I didn't _do_ anything?" said Ami, scratching her head sheepishly. "The computer did it all on its own!"

The girl stared at her, blinking. She then sighed exasperatedly as if giving up trying to figure out how a computer did something all on its own. She pushed some of her semi-long brown hair out of her face and turned away. After a while Ami got annoyed at just standing around so she grabbed Taru by the arm and started dragging her aimlessly. For a minute Taru was completely stunned then she gave an impatient sound and pulled out of her grip. The two walked around for a good fifteen minutes or so (she couldn't be exact because she didn't have a watch) but it didn't feel like they were getting anywhere. Ami was just wishing the weird devices had a watch when they started beeping. Taru gave a screech in surprise and jumped half a foot in the air.

"Hey, there's a map on it now!" said Ami excitedly, unclipping the device and looking at it. "Wish it would shut up now… Okay, I got it, I got it! Come on, we should go. The sooner we get to where it wants us to go the sooner it'll shut up."

"But why did they start beeping like that? All on its own?" squeaked Taru, following after the older girl closely.

"Maybe it acts like a cell phone and it picked up on some sort of signal," shrugged Ami, veering off the path to follow the map.

"Oh, well in that case…" said Taru, sounding far more relieved. "Then that means there's got to be a cell phone tower. And where there is a cell phone tower there is more than likely a town where we can directions and help!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever…" muttered Ami.

The wandered about for a bit longer, the beeping starting to get increasingly more annoying. Finally they stumbled across a small village and the beeping instantly stopped, to Ami's relief. With an excited cry, Taru rushed forward, looking into each and every house trying to find somebody to help them out. Ami followed behind leisurely, looking around for something a bit more interesting than a bunch of houses. She was certain that the map had led them here for something more than just the houses. And by the look on Taru's disappointed face, there weren't any people here. Suddenly she gave a gasp.

"Ami! Over here! Come look at these!" cried Taru, motioning to the older women but slipping into the hut long before Ami caught up.

"That girl…" said Ami, shaking her head and feeling, not for the first time, as if she were looking after a younger sister. It was strange because she had always been the little sister but also enjoyable. Sometimes she wondered if Taru ever thought any similar ideas. She then shook her head clear and followed the younger girl inside.

"Have any idea what they are?" asked Taru, pointing at two eggs. One was purple with yellow poke a dots and the crest of loyalty of it. The other was striped white and orange also with a crest but this one of trust.

"They look like eggs," said Ami, putting her hands in her pockets and shrugging. "What got you so excited about them anyways?"

"Hmmmm?" said Taru, blinking up at her. "Well, they are very interesting. How many weird eggs have you seen in a funny place like this?"

"I get why any _normal_ person would be fascinated," said Ami, rolling her eyes. "But just a few minutes ago… Oh whatever. I'm not saying they're not cool but we should get going. Won't your dad be home soon?"

Taru waved her hand. "He won't be home for another hour or so. And if he did come home about now he'll think I went out to see a movie," said the girl, rolling her eyes. "Besides, don't you actually _care_ about what's going on! See, there's two here. And they each have one of the colors of those weird devices. Which that would theoretically make this one mine…"

She reached out a hand and touched the one with the crest of loyalty on it. As she did so, Ami rushed forward to try and stop her. Her hand brushed the second egg and suddenly two columns of lights came down from the ceiling and landed on the eggs. Taru took a step back and Ami glared at her out of the corner of her eye. But her attention was on the strange lights when suddenly two figures jumped out. One landed elegantly in front of Ami while the other just knocked Taru to the ground and stood on top of her. The one on the ground looked like a large-smallish lion with some orange fur on its head, a gold collar with a large blue stone hanging off of it and large sky blue yes.

"What the…" started Ami, but stopped thinking it might be rude to say anything right now. The lion lifted a paw and licked it a couple of times before staring up at her expectantly. "Yes?"

There was a sound like somebody clearing their throat and the lion opened its mouth.

'_What's it going to do? Roar at me?'_ thought Ami.

"My name is Leormon and I am your Digimon," said the lion.

"Come again?" said Ami immediately, blinking. Leormon started to open his mouth again but Ami continued. "Digi-whatsit?"

"Digimon. Digital Monsters. We're creatures that were created by digital bytes from your Internet that slowly took forms until we evolved into what we are now," explained Leormon, looking extremely patient. Or he just couldn't have any sort of expression, whichever…

"So we're in the internet?" said Ami slowly.

"No… Our world has taken on a physical form by now and – " started Leormon but Taru suddenly went "So what is this?"

She was staring up at the second Digimon in shock as it looked at her like a loveable dog that didn't realize it wasn't a puppy anymore. It was red with purple stripes, a feather like tail and what looked like bunny ears. He too had blue eyes.

"Oh, I'm Elecmon," said the Digimon, climbing off of Taru and standing on its hind legs.

"If you say so…" muttered Ami.

"Elecmon?" said Taru, sitting up a bit but still wearing a look of surprise. "Would that have anything to do with electricity?"

"Uh huh…" said the weird red and blue creature, sounding a little distracted. He—well, Taru wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl but it sounded like a boy—lifted his head up and sniffed the air a few times, then put it down to the ground and wandered around while sniffing. Eventually he wandered over to Taru and stuffed his nose into her jeans pocket.

"Hey, get out of there!" cried Taru, trying to push Elecmon away. She eventually got him out of her pants pocket but the Digimon still managed to grab the candy bar she had, out of it.

"What is this?" asked Elecmon, looking up at Taru eagerly.

"Uh… a candy bar…" said Taru, scratching her head. "Can I have it back?"

"I've never heard of a candy bar before… but it sure smells good!" said Elecmon brightly.

"But what if you get sick from it?" said Taru worriedly. "Most animals can't eat chocolate… Hey, Ami, do you think a Digimon could get away with eating chocolate?"

"What makes you think I know?" cried Ami.

With a sigh Taru stood up, brushing the dust off her jeans and looking back down at Elecmon with raised eyebrows.

"Hey… I'll take this back," said Taru, grabbing the chocolate bar from Elecmon. He frowned but she said cheerfully, "Don't worry! I'll get you something to eat when we get home! There's lots of food there that I'm sure you'll be able to have!"

"Okay!" said Elecmon cheerfully. He was reminding her of a dog way too much.

"Wait… now you want to go home?" said Ami. "Will you make up your mind? You said your dad wouldn't care!"

"Ah, well…" said Taru sheepishly, "I just said that because I wanted to stay for a bit. The truth is he'd totally freak out and be worried sick about me…"

"I guess we're going home then…" muttered Ami, looking back down at her lion-like Digimon. He looked up and smiled at her pleasantly. With a shake of her head Ami walked out of the hut. Taru and the Digimon followed.

"So… which way is home?" asked Taru after walking around the village for a bit.

"Why are you asking me for? Do I look like the girl with all the answers?" snapped Ami.

"Hmm… Hey, Elecmon, do you know?" asked Taru sweetly.

"Well, the Digital World is home for me…" said Elecmon thoughtfully.

"Okay, but I mean the human world… You know, Earth! Japan! Odaiba!"

"Never heard of those…" mumbled Elecmon, shaking his head.

Taru sighed, and the group continued to wander around the village (they were all following Ami, but Ami was probably following someone else so they were mostly walking in circles). After five minutes they found the end of the village, and a minute after that Ami suddenly stopped walking.

"What is it?" asked Taru.

"I think I see some kids our age over there," said Ami, slowly pointing towards the right. It took a moment, but then Taru saw what looked like a small television in the middle of nowhere. And these groups of kids were standing in front of it and suddenly a bright light came out of it and… then the kids were _gone_.

"Maybe I should get my eyes checked…" muttered Ami.

"I think I'm seeing it too…" said Taru, rubbing her eyes a bit and blinking.

The two girls didn't do anything but gawk until after a girl with short brown hair and a cute pink outfit and a white cat-like creature that might possibly have been a Digimon got "pulled in" by the bright light.

"Well," said Taru, looking back at Ami, "what do you think of that?"

"I don't know… Did those guys have Digimon too? I could have sworn I saw something with them…" muttered Ami. Then she glanced up and noticed Taru was no longer there. Looking around, she spotted the eleven year old walking towards the television and the spot where the group of kids had been before they went into it…

"Hey, come back here!" cried Ami, running after her. "What are you doing!"

"Well," said Taru, who was walking slowly towards the television set and not turning around, "they were human, and even had Digimon with them, right? They were able to go through…" Then she stopped, turned around, and with a small smile said, "We don't have any other leads and they looked happy enough—not frightened or anything like that—so why not give it a try? If it doesn't work we can always find another TV and see what happens!"

"How about _not_," said Ami, shaking her head. "I didn't have 'get sucked in by strange TV and die' on my list of things to do today."

"You didn't have 'Go to the Digimon World and meet a new friend' on your list either…" muttered Taru.

"How about you check it out, Miss I'm-Going-To-Risk-My-Life, and let me know how it works!" snapped Ami.

Taru blinked a few times. "Oh…" she said, looking down and twirling the tie that held her bandana on with her finger a few times before turning around and going towards where the group of kids had been. Confounded by the situation, Elecmon looked back and forth from Ami to Taru before giving up on understanding the situation and following Taru. With a weary sigh Ami followed as well, Leormon right behind her.

With a hesitant deep breath Taru stood in front of the television, waiting for something to happen. She even put a hand out in front of her, slowly, reaching towards the screen. Her hand was touching the screen but nothing was happening.

"Maybe you could use your Digi-vise!" said Elecmon cheerfully.

"Huh?" said Taru, looking down. "Oh… This thing?" she said, pulling out the weird shaped thing that reminded her a lot of a cell phone. Feeling a little weird, she held it out to the television screen, and a second later all she saw was a bright light, and…

"Oof!"

Rubbing her backside and wincing slightly, Taru looked around. It looked like she was in the extra storage room where the computer was again. Elecmon was there too, and a few seconds later Ami (back in her school uniform) and her Digimon landed in a heap a few feet away.

"Ow… Oh, we're home, we're home!" cried Ami excitedly, jumping up.

"What is all this stuff?" asked Elecmon curiously, looking around quickly so he could look at everything at once.

"Um…" blinked Taru. "Oh… That's a computer! And that's a bookshelf… with books in it! And… that's a bunch of boxes! That's about it…"

Suddenly a ringing noise filled the room. The two girls blinked at each other for a few seconds before Ami's eyes widened and with a small "Oh!" she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. "Hello?"

Taru played around with the tie to her bandana as she vaguely heard Ami's "conversation."

"Oh, hi Mom… Nope, nothing much, just—er—helping Hotaru out with the computer… Uh huh… Um, okay… Yeah, that's fine…"

_How vague_… thought Taru dully in her head, still playing around with the bandana tie has she sat down on one of the cardboard boxes that were piled up on one side of the room. She was surprised when Elecmon hopped up and sat down in her lap, blinking up at her innocently. Taru smiled back at him, wondering what she was going to do with him. Most people say they have a pet dog or a cat; how would Taru explain to people about _Elecmon_?

_That is, if I actually talked to people…_ thought Taru, sighing a bit.

"Hi," said Ami, interrupting the other girl's thoughts. Ami closed the phone and put it back in her pocket as she said, "Um… my mother wants me to go home and help with dinner… So I'll see you soon?"

"Sure!" cried Taru, jumping up and standing up straight, while picking up Elecmon and holding him so he wouldn't fall down.

"You don't have to walk me to the door every time I leave…" muttered Ami as she grabbed her bag and headed toward the front door, Leormon at her side.

"But…" started Taru, though even she didn't know what she would say after that.

With a slight shake of the head Ami said good-bye and left the apartment. Sighing again, Taru closed the door and slid down till her bottom hit the ground. She put Elecmon back on her lap and looked down at him thoughtfully. He just looked quizzically back.

"Oh yeah…" said Taru slowly, "I promised you something…"

"Yeah, you did…" said Elecmon, his face brightening.

"Let's see…" she muttered, going over to the refrigerator and peering at the contents inside. All that was in there were leftovers, milk, eggs, and the usual. Nothing that Taru was confident Elecmon would be able to eat. So she tried the pantry. Not much luck there either, except for some day old French bread.

"I guess bread would be okay…" muttered Taru, pulling it out and setting it down in front of the red and blue Digimon.

"It sure smells good!" said Elecmon, digging in.

"Okay…" said Taru vaguely. "I guess I should start on dinner… But I don't know what to make! I never know what to make… Maybe I should have asked Ami or something… but she always gets annoyed when I do that…"

Despite her worries Taru found something to cook in no time, mostly by asking for Elecmon's opinion and then going along with it—and Elecmon said yes to the first thing she suggested because he couldn't think of anything better to say, so it was a very quick process.

While she was cooking Taru tried to think of how to start a conversation, but how exactly do you do that with a Digimon? She didn't know whether to think of them as super-intelligent animals or very peculiar humans… or perhaps they were something totally different… Didn't Leormon say that Digimon stood for Digital Monsters? So… would that have anything to do with computers? It sure sounded like it, but Taru wasn't exactly the brightest with computers so she could be wrong… She sighed wearily, annoyed with her confusing thoughts.

"What's the matter?" asked Elecmon from below her, like he was a dog waiting for her to drop crumbs or something.

"You're really confusing, you know that?" snapped Taru, waving the spoon she was cooking with at him furiously while her other hand was on her hip.

"Whad I do? Whad I do!" cried Elecmon.

"Nothing…" said Taru, putting her hands to her sides. "I'm just confused by this whole thing. It's not like there's a book or something I could look it up from."

"Oh…" said Elecmon, sounding as though he understood. Then he walked over to the wooden spoon Taru had held at her side and tried to lick the sauce off it.

"Ha!" cried Taru, holding it up so he couldn't get it. "Fat chance you'll get any of this!"

"Humph…" muttered Elecmon, sitting down. "But you're world is a little weird too."

"Huh?" blinked Taru. "Oh, I guess Earth would be kinda weird for someone who's never been here before… but it seems to be pretty much like your world—geologically speaking. We have oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains, hills, valleys… I presume your planet would have the same thing?"

"Sounds so…" said Elecmon.

"And you're planet even has oxygen!" said Taru excitedly, clapping her hands together—the spoon was still in her hand and she completely forgot about cooking. "I haven't heard of one planet that had oxygen. Besides Mars… I think… Hey, do you even breath oxygen?"

Elecmon shrugged.

When the front door opened Taru jumped a bit, not expecting her dad to be home this soon. It seemed earlier than it was. But just when she was about to reply to her dad's usual greeting she suddenly realized Elecmon was still at her feet…

"Honey?" called Minamoto-san when Taru didn't reply.

"Um!" cried Taru nervously, putting the spoon on the counter and picking up Elecmon, putting a finger to her lips as if to say, "Be quiet!" Elecmon nodded his head with an almost-comical-serious expression on his face and, satisfied with the response, Taru held him behind her back and started creeping slowly towards the door to the living room as she called fretfully, "Uh, hi dad! I'm just… uh… in the kitchen! Yeah…"

She walked into the hallway and accidentally walked right in front of her dad. Thankfully, he shouldn't have been able to see Elecmon from where he was standing.

"Oh!" said Minamoto-san, widening his eyes with surprise. "Hello! I thought you were in the kitchen?" he added with a raised eyebrow.

"Um… About that…" said Taru, thinking of a good lie. Well, not really a _lie_, more like the very, very, _very_ vague truth… that was sort of a lie, but not really… All right, a lie.

She hated lying to her dad.

"I just… Suddenly remembered something! And… I have to, like, check it out… immediately… So… if you excuse me…"

And then she sprinted to her room without another look back.

"What are we doing?" asked Elecmon from behind her. "Are we playing a game?"

"Shh!" cried Taru, raising Elecmon up to her face. "Look, I'd rather not have my dad find out about you… for the time being, at least… So… You can hide in my closet until I'm done with dinner!"

With a sheepish grin she shoved Elecmon into her closet, slamming the doors shut and rushing back into the kitchen, ignoring Elecmon's many complaints about being shoved into a very small, tight space.

Back in the kitchen, Taru found Minamoto-san pilfering in the refrigerator for a beer, then, after opening it and taking a quick swig, peered into the pot of food cooking at the stove.

"Sure smells good…" he said, closing his eyes contently.

"Shoo, shoo!" cried Taru, waving a towel at her father and chasing him out of the kitchen.

"Alright, alright!" cried Minamoto-san, laughing as he rushed out of the room.

Taru sighed, leaning against the counter with her elbows and tossing the towel aside. _Sheesh, Dad'll just eat all the food before I cook it if he's in the same room! I wouldn't be surprised if Elecmon did the same…_

With all the excitement with Elecmon and the Digital World she completely forgot to turn on her music, which she frequently did while she cooked. Actually, she was quite caught up with the whole string of events that had happened that afternoon that she didn't realize this fact until she was about to set the table… But the food was ready, so what would be the point?

Taru wasn't at all surprised to see that Ichigo Wakahisa had shown up for dinner. Ichigo was their next-door neighbor and always seemed to randomly show up to the Minamoto's apartment. And whenever Taru had needed a baby sitter when she was a little kid Ichigo had always been the one to do the job. They always had fun doing cute things like coloring or baking cookies. Taru had always been better at the cooking than Ichigo, even at a young age.

Ichigo was a slim woman of average height, with short dark hair that was left either plain or in a ponytail depending on her mood. She worked at the library near the apartment building and was the only one who ever took the time to help Taru with her homework—no one else ever got her questions. She had glasses but sometimes wore contacts, depending on her mood. Ichigo had no children, but she had three cats.

"Oh, didn't I show up just in time?" said Ichigo as a greeting, piling her dishes with food and eating right away. "So how was your day?" she asked Taru between mouthfuls.

"Uh… great!" said Taru with a smile. "Ami helped me with the computer… sort of…"

"You got that old piece of junk to work?" said Minamoto-san. "Ha! Ami's quite the miracle worker."

"Well, I just got it to turn on…" said Taru sheepishly.

"Maybe I could figure it out one of these days…" muttered Ichigo.

It was just casual talk after that—mostly Minamoto-san and Ichigo doing all the talking with Taru listening and pointing things out once and a while. Talking and eating just made Taru forget all about Elecmon and everything else that happened that day… she seemed to be doing that a lot today. In fact, after everyone finished eating and had stacked all the dishes in the sink, Ichigo suggested they watch some television for a little bit. This was pretty much the Minamoto's after dinner ritual, before going their separate ways and sleeping. Well, Taru stayed up reading or studying and Minamoto-san had sleeping problems… what Ichigo did was a complete mystery, but perhaps she had fun playing with her three cats.

"Aww, do you think we have time to watch a movie?" asked Ichigo in the living room, flipping through the channels.

"It's only seven thirty," shrugged Taru's dad.

"I heard this one was good…" said Ichigo, setting the remote control on her lap and leaning back. "It's about this girl who works at a bakery and is visited by this man three times a week, and she starts falling in love with him but can't work up the courage to say anything about it. And it turns out that the guy loved her anyway…"

"Don't spoil the ending!" cried Taru.

"Ugh, not a chick-flick," moaned Minamoto-san. "You know how much I hate chick-flicks…"

"Watch it anyway!" snapped Ichigo, glaring dangerously.

"All right…" muttered Minamoto-san.

It was during a cat food commercial that Taru suddenly remembered Elecmon. What cats had to do with a blue and red creature hidden in her closet, Taru had no clue, but she better hurry back to her room or Elecmon would be very miserable. But at least this time she came up with a better "vague truth."

Standing up and stretching, she muttered something about being tired, and wandered over to the kitchen. The two adults didn't seem to care, and, after grabbing something to eat from the pantry, Taru rushed back to her room.

"So, so, sorry, Elecmon!" cried Taru, sliding the closet doors open. "I won't do this every night, don't worry—"

She stopped, seeing the Digimon curled up in a ball on top of her coat. Smiling, Taru kneeled down and set the food—some leftover dinner—in front of him. He did just what she expected him too; Elecmon opened one eye, blinked sleepily, and then with a cry for joy started eating to his hearts content.

"Have any nice dreams?" asked Taru.

"Huh?" blinked Elecmon.

"Never mind…" muttered Taru, shaking her head


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: I wrote this chapter completely by myself. And you'll see why it was just me once you get started reading this chapter. I'm not exactly sure how Snimon's attacks worked, but it sounded good enough and I did actually look up the names of the attacks. I just never heard Snimon talk in the show, so he didn't in my post! I also looked up Elecmon's, Leormon's and his digivolved-state's attacks. For you really big Digimon fans, you'll recognize Leormon's digivolved form. And no flaming on that fort, okay? You can tell me nicely why you don't think it works but I'm not really going to listen either way. Anyways, enjoy and more replies please! Thanks for those who did review... okay, they were short but they were nice!

Disclaimer: own... digimon? Really? you think I own digimon? Well in that case, could we remake the ending of Season 02 please? No, wait... nevermind. I don't really own digimon. But I do own Ami! Taru is owned by Kayhera... That's her username... maybe you should check out her stuff too!

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**Recap**: So I was helping Taru out with her computer when these weird "Digi-vice" things came out and we went to the Digital World for the first time. We followed the map the digi-vices showed and found a completely empty village save for two eggs. I tried to stop her but Taru touched one and these two Digimon came out: Leormon (he's mine) and Elecmon (obviously Taru's). Trying to get home we saw some other kids with Digimon going through this TV. Taru had this _wonderful_ idea to try it to and we got home. I went home to cook dinner for my mom and Taru had dinner with her dad and Ichigo, her neighbor. We both can't wait to go to the Digital World again!

It was good that there were only a couple more days of school before Winter Break. If Ami had to deal with it for too long, she would go crazy! It helped that with her mind was more on Leormonthan on school andshe wished more and more to return home. And, more importantly, to go back to the Digital World. As soon as she had gotten home she had called Taru up and said "We're going again tomorrow!" Not that she knew how they were going to manage it. It was going to be the first time ever that Taru would come over to Ami's house, and the first time they visited on a school day for none-school purposes. Something that the brainy girl quickly pointed out to Ami in her matter-of-fact way.

"Something wrong with that?" asked Ami, talking mostly about the none-school related part.

"Well, you're always just taking me out for ice cream and junk when it's my turn to visit. I thought you made it quite obvious that you didn't want me to go to your house," said Taru calmly, as if it didn't matter too much to her in the least. But the quick bye after Ami said "I changed my mind, okay?" told Ami quite clearly that she normally did care.

So along with these mysterious Digimon, Ami was thinking a lot about Taru and their relationship as friends. Unfortunately this led to walking around in a daydream state so eventually she knocked into somebody. Where the person she ran into just swayed on her feet a little, Ami felt her self fall forward and land on the floor. The person she ran into quickly kneeled down, helping her up one handed. In his other hand was a guitar case. Ami's eyes went up tothe face and she immediately recognized him as Matt Ishida, the lead guitaristin this local band. In fact she was quite sure they were going to have a concert on Christmas.

"I'm really sorry about that," said Matt, looking really embarrassed. "I just need to go to a band practice soon and…"

"No, my bad," laughed Ami, blushing slightly. "I wasn't paying attention. I was thinking about… my friend! She's coming over today to my house for the first time."

"Really?" said Matt, looking astonished. "So did you two just meet or something?"

"Oh, no, we've been friends for four years now!" continued Ami. "But my mom isn't exactly the greatest person to be around so mostly we hang out somewhere else."

"Four years, huh?" said Matt, suddenly looking as if he was thinking about something else. In fact his face looked so much like Ami's when she ran into him that she started laughing. He blinked, though for a minute and then joined into her laughter, putting a hand behind his head. "Well, I should head out. Have fun!"

"Yeah, you too," said Ami. "If I don't run into you again… figuratively speaking, hopefully… then I'll see you at your concert."

"Awesome! See you late!" said Matt, rushing off.

Ami laughed for a little while longer and then checked her watch. Her eyes went wide and muttered angrily to herself. Hitching up her backpack, she rushed out of the school toward the subway. When she reached the crowd and the usual place that she met Taru, she checked her watch again and hit herself on the head. Even after running all the way here she was more than fifteen minutes late. She looked around and couldn't see Taru anywhere. Finally, most of the people thinned out and she saw the girl sitting on a bench reading her math book. Sighing in relief, she walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. Taru gave a little jump, before looking up at her. At first she just stared up at Ami blankly but slowly a slight smile spread across her face.

"Wondered when you were going to show up," she said, putting her math book away and standing up. "What happen; you forget?"

"No!" cried Ami defensively. "I would never forget about you and I'm not ever going to abandon you if you need my help! I just ran into this guy at school… And we talked for a little while. I just lost track of time, that's all."

"Um… okay… I'm just teasing," said Taru, blinking and walking past her. But Ami could tell that to Taru, and even to her, this was not a joking matter.

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Opening up her front door and looking at the mess in the kitchen, living room and her room Ami immediately regretted inviting her friend over. It would have been much better if she had had a day to clean up the house. But then she assured herself with the fact that she never would have. Putting on an embarrassed grin, she opened the door all the way so Taru could enter. As soon as the door closed a red and purple head stuck its head out of her book bag and quickly jumped out. It took Ami a minute to realize that it was Elecmon. 

"I am allowed to come out, right?" said the Digimon, looking up at Taru.

"Don't worry, my mom won't be home until late," said Ami, shrugging. "So feel free to walk around anywhere and don't mind the mess."

"What about your dad?" asked Taru, looking up at her.

"Er…" said Ami, putting a hand behind her head and looking away. "He moved to America…after the divorce… actually after... but on a happier note!"

She walked into her room and pressed the power button on her computer. Leormon looked up from where he was resting on her bed and smiled slightly. He jumped lightly from the bed, yawned and sat waiting. Ami blinked at him until he turned his attention to Taru who was standing timidly in the doorway.

"I said to not mind the mess," said Ami, turning back to her computer and trying to find that weird window that had been on Taru's computer. After a while she looked up again and Taru had made it a few more steps into the room and was looking around at some of the pictures on top of her dresser. "I keep our photos over here," she said, pointing her thumb at her night stand.

"Oh," said Taru, taking her hands off the frames and turning away. "Sorry, I should have asked first."

"Nah, that's okay," laughed Ami. "Really, relax! I'm not like this at your house."

"But you've been coming to my house since we met," muttered Taru, obviously not wanting the older girl to hear. So Ami pretended thatTaru hadn't said anything and turned back to the computer.

"Oh, I give up!" she cried, throwing up a hand. She pulled out the device that Elecmon had referred to as a "Digi-vice" and pointed it at the computer screen. "Digimon World Portal: open sesame! Or whatever."

She rolled her eyes and was about to turn away because she hadn't really expected it to work. But as with the other day the screen suddenly glowed white. Quickly Taru grabbed her digi-vice and joined her as the bright light flooded the room and sucked them in. When they could see clearly, Ami was again in her yellow shirt and black jeans. She hooked her digi-vice to her belt and turned to Taru.

"Hey, we figured it out!"

"We?" said Taru, blinking. "I didn't do anything!"

"Sure you did!" said Ami, putting an arm over her shoulder. "If you hadn't decided to take a chance yesterday I wouldn't have had an inkling of what to do. So, _we_ did it."

"If you say so…" murmured Taru, pulling away and looking around. "We're not in the same place we were yesterday."

"So? As long as we can find a TV we can get back to where we came from," said Ami, putting her hands into her pockets. "Now, let's go explore and see what's out there!"

"The TV thing is only theoretical since we've only done it once," said Taru. "Just letting you know."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," said Ami, giving a backwards wave as she started off. "Come on, I'm tired of standing in one place."

All during the walk there was little to no sign of anything, Digimon, beast or person of any sort. As time wore on Ami wished she had prepared a bit more for this little journey but then remembered that she had already been late picking up Taru. She would blame Matt for this one. She had already been distracted because of the Digital World and then he decided to bump into her. Finally, when Elecmon started to beg for something to eat, Taru paused and brought out a few snacks she had packed in her bag. At least one person in the group was prepared. They were sitting down in the brush a little ways and snacking a bit when Ami opened up her cell phone.

"Who do you think you're calling?" asked Taru, blinking as she bit into her apple.

"I'm not," said Ami, waiting patiently as it turned on. Just as she had expected the time popped up saying they had been gone from home for about fifteen minutes. "I was checking the time. About what time do you need to get home?"

"Sometime before six I guess," said Taru with a shrug. "I told Dad I was going to be out so sometimes he expects me to just have dinner with you."

"Unfortunately I'm nearing broke…" muttered Ami. "I'm saving up to go to this concert on Christmas Eve and – "

"But we were going to spend Christmas Eve together!" cried Taru in an outrage. "And I don't do concerts."

"Well, it is my year to choose what we're doing," said Ami, checking her calendar on her cell phone, "so, isn't it my say what we do?"

"I'm not going unless you drag me!" said Taru stubbornly, crossing her arms.

"That can be arranged," said Ami, grinning, putting her cell phone away and finishing up her orange. She threw away the peel and Taru looked at her in shock.

"It's biodegradable," she said with a shrug.

"But there are creatures that live here that we know nothing about!" cried Taru. "What if they eat and die? You poisoned it!"

"An unfortunate accident," said Ami, getting to her feet and stretching. "Come on, let's see if we can't find something at least today… even if it's another empty village."

"But I'm still hungry!" complained Elecmon. Taru searched her bag but there was nothing left but her homework. Eventually Leormon handed over his snack saying he wasn't that hungry. Ami had noticed that he didn't eat very much.

'_Maybe there are two types of Digimon: those that eat and those that don't,'_ thought Ami, letting Taru take the lead though she did so timidly. _'You know, I'm only a leader in which I can think of something to do when its needed. It's not always a smart something though.'_

Half an hour passed and the most exciting thing that happened was that they found a river, into which Elecmon immediately jumped into. He splashed around for a minute as Ami watched him, laughing. Leormon stood quite calm as Taru hovered near by looking worried beyond belief. She had hardly met the creature about 24 hours ago and all ready she was ruling over it like a young mother. In a funny but out of character trick, Leormon walked up behind Taru and, in a pretense of yawning, knocked her over into the water so she was soaking wet on her arms, legs and a bit of her chest. Luckily the bottom of the river was made out of sand. Laughing, Elecmon exited the river and shook himself dry as Taru pulled herself out dripping water everywhere and glaring at the two Digimon. It was theshow of how well she controlled herself that Ami didn't burst out laughing at the strange sight but instead walked over to Leormon and pretended to scold him lightly for the heartless trick. He then went up to Taru and, in such a way that it even made Ami believe, he begged forgiveness for his "thick-headed-ness."

"Your Digimon is horrible!" muttered Taru later as she changed into her school uniform which, amazingly enough, had staid dry in her book bag.

"I don't know," said Ami, trying to sound neutral. "He waited till you set down your bag. You wouldn't have dry clothes if he hadn't."

"Maybe the Digital World would have made them dry!" said Taru. "I mean, your clothes change when we go through the computer."

"Sure," said Ami, shrugging but not really paying attention. She was watching Elecmon running around Leormon as the second Digimon lay around half asleep. He would raise hishead every so often to look at the jumping figure then lay his head back down to rest. She found Elecmon so cute and had always wished that she could have a pet but never could afford it. Leormon wasn't so much cute as really cool looking. He hardly did anything but lay around all the time except for the incident where he "accidentally" pushed Taru over. She wondered what power on this earth or another had stuck her with such a mellow Digimon when Taru could hardly keep up with her hyperactive one. Elecmon and Ami would have been a far better match.

With a fake cough, Taru brought the older girl's attention back to her as she flipped her head back, her bandanna back on her head. She pushed a stray strand out of her face and clipped her digi-vice on her skirt instead. After deciding she was all dressed, Ami turned away and walked out to the two Digimon. Immediately Leormon got to his feet and strolled leisurely over to her. She grinned sheepishly and ran a hand through her hair. Then she frowned and looked off at the now setting sun. Pulling out her cell phone she saw that they had wasted much of their time getting Taru out of the river.

"We should probably start heading back," sighed Ami. "Well, we can say we found a river!"

"Oh, yes!" said Taru sarcastically, picking up Elecmon like he was just a pet. "Very productive gang!"

"We should probably get out of the opening," said Leormon suddenly, looking up at the sky with his eyes narrowed. "Lately a lot of Digimon have been attacking at night. And they aren't friendly."

"That's nice to know," said Ami, hanging her head. "Okay, I guess we really _should_ head out."

"Seems that way…" muttered Taru. "Maybe we should check around to see if there's a TV near by."

Not really paying attention, Ami unclipped her Digi-vice to see if she could get a map to show up showing the surrounding TVs. She even pushed a couple of buttons timidly, afraid that if she did she might break the thing. Just as she was sure she had found something at least useful, she heard Leormon start growling. She looked down at the small lion and saw him half crouching. Turning toward a startled Taru, she saw Elecmon struggling to get out of the girl's grip. When he did, he jumped to the ground and his fur stood on end.

"What?" asked Ami, suddenly a bit annoyed. Weren't they supposed to be going? They didn't have time to pick a fight with a Digimon that crossed onto their territory or whatever…

Suddenly she found herself being pushed backwards and landed in a bush along with Taru. A second later she realized that the Digimon must have pushed them. Just as she was starting to come out and was working herself to get angry a crescent of energy hit the ground right in front of her and a second nearer to the Digimon. In her surprise Ami fell backwards onto her rear both frightened and unsure of what was going on. When Taru cried out and pointed out a large green bug flying in the air with knives for hands, Ami shook her head and got back her senses. She got to her feet and brushed off the dirt just as the large bug swooped down trying to cut the Digimon down.

"What is that thing?" Ami shouted at Leormon as he got back to his feet.

"It's Snimon!" shouted Elecmon. "An angry insectoid Digimon that usually stays away from other Digimon. Guess he decided to come out of his hole in the ground…"

"Look out!" called Taru, pointing at the attacking Digimon. Giving a frightened shriek, Ami fell down to the ground just as Snimon flew over her. When she was sure he was gone she got back to her feet and rushed over to Leormon.

"We need to go!" she said earnestly. "We can lose him in the trees. There's a TV real close by. I don't care if he destroys that, we just don't need to get hurt!"

"You and Taru go," said Leormon. "We'll be right behind you."

"No!" cried Ami. "I'm not leaving you behind. We're all getting out of here or we're all staying. No exceptions!"

"_Super Thunder Strike!_" called Elecmon, his fur standing up, sparkling with electricity. It then formed into a single column and wound up to hit Snimon, turning him away from Ami and making him head toward Elecmon instead.

"That's scientifically impossible," called Taru, and Elecmon started running toward cover. "But, hey, it's cool!"

"You don't need to be stubborn," said Leormon patiently. "We know how to take care of this sort of thing and – "

"You don't get it!" cried Ami, her eyes wide. "If I leave now I'll feel like I'm abandoning you! And I'm not going to abandon you!"

"I'm telling you to go so – " started Leormon.

"No! I'm sticking this one out! I'll stay out of the way if I need to but we're leaving this together, you hear me?" screamed Ami, closing her eyes to try and stop the tears. She didn't get what had come over her.

But at that moment her Digi-vice started glowing along with Leormon. Snimon tried dive-bombing again and Ami was forced to fall backwards. The large Digimon then sent another crescent of light down at her. She cried out not sure what could save her when suddenly something else was flying above her and using a staff to throw away the attack. Ami gasped, sat up and looked around for Leormon but he was gone. She didn't know what made her think it but she realized that this new Digimon floating in front of her must be Leormon. In some weird way.

"Who's that?" asked Taru, looking at the figure wearing a wizard hat and holding a staff with a sun on the top. His cloak had a high collar so all that could be seen of his face were his eyes which were the same sapphire blue of Leormon's.

"That's Wizardmon!" cried Elecmon. "It was said he worked for an evil Digimon named Myotismon but betrayed him and paid for it dearly. I thought he was dead and wasn't coming back, but guess I was wrong!"

"Wizardmon?" said Ami shaking slightly as she got to her feet. "How?"

"Because of you I digivolved!" said Wizardmon, looking at her over his shoulder. He then twirled his staff elegantly as he turned back to Snimon. "You cared enough to stay when you could have very easily run away and saved yourself. Now let me repay that by protecting you."

And just then Ami understood why she had gotten Leormon (or Wizardmon… or whatever he was called) instead of a Digimon like Elecmon. He would be too busy goofing off that he would never really understand and though she would be able to keep up with him she could never connect with him. But Leormon would be patient and willing to hear her out and though he may not get half of what she said he would still care. Even if she did something completely stupid. Almost like Taru… except there were many thing she wouldn't tell Taru because she didn't need that weighing on her after her mother died.

She was suddenly snapped out of her trance when Snimon swooped down upon Wizardmon. He dodged it and Ami made a mad jump to get out of the way. As if realizing what he had done Wizardmon rushed over to her to make sure she was okay. She looked up at him grinning and then gasped as Snimon came back.

"_Thunderball!_" cried Wizardmon, a energy ball appearing in his free hand.

He threw it at Snimon, hitting it on the nose. It gave a cry and paused, stunned but not beaten. Shaking its head, its blade hands started glowing and sweeping it forward the crescent energy flew out. Ami gasped and jumped out of the way, grabbing Wizardmon as she went down.

"We need to get out of here!" cried Taru, hiding behind a tree now.

"Fat chance!" snapped Ami. "This guy's made me mad now and we're going to beat his butt from here to the edge of the Digi-universe!"

"Watch it!" said Wizardmon, pushing her back down as Snimon dived down and hit the Digimon straight in the chest with its head. Wizardmon flew backwards into a tree and Taru gasped.

"W-Wizardmon?" stammered Ami, kneeling on the ground and staring at the half unconscious Digimon. Snimon hovered in the air and its blade hands started glowing again. "Hold it!" shouted Ami, grabbing up a rock and throwing it at the large bug and hitting it square on the head.

The large bug paused and then turned toward her. It gave an angry cy and flew right towards Ami but her eyes were on Wizardmon who was slowly getting to her feet.

"Ami! MOVE!" cried Taru, coming out of hiding behind the tree and dropping Elecmon out of her arms.

"_Magical Game!_" called Wizardmon and a blast of energy hit Snimon in the back.

At first it seemed to do nothing but as it came close enough to hit her it seemed to dissolve and disappear completely. As Ami stood their shakily, Wizardmon started to glow for a minute then shrunk back into Leormon. As she got a hold of herself, Ami walked over and knelt down and picked up her Digimon.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly as Taru and Elecmon timidly came out of hiding.

"I didn't mean to…" muttered Leormon. "To kill him… But…"

"It's okay," said Ami, smiling. "Thanks! You were awesome!"

"Are you two okay?" cried Taru, rushing over when she decided that Snimon was gone. "Where'd the Digimon go?"

"He de-digitized," explained Elecmon. "His data went off into the Digital World and maybe will go to Primary Village to be reborn."

Still holding Leormon, Ami pulled out her cell phone and checked the time. During the battle the sun had gone down completely but nobody had really noticed up until this point. Still a little shaken from the battle, Ami got to her feet slowly just looking at her cell phone, thinking. Then, with a half-hearted smile she looked up at Taru.

"Want to spend the night?" she asked quietly.

"What about school?" cried Taru in horror.

"I think you can afford to miss one day," said Ami. "But I really would feel better this way instead of you going home at this time of night."

"I ride the subway at night all the time!" said Taru. "I'll be fine."

"Just… call your dad…" sighed Ami. "See what he thinks, okay? I don't think I'm going to school tomorrow anyways and Winter Break is coming up soon."

"Well… I guess…" muttered Taru. "It would be kind of nice to not have to do school work for one day at least."

"Besides, you'll probably do all your homework plus some in the morning," said Ami with a grin.

"Are you okay?" asked Leormon.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, holding him closer. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're just acting a little bit different, that's all," said Leormon with a smile. "But it's not a bad thing. I just noticed."

"Let's get to the TV and see how things work out, okay?" said Ami with a yawn.

"Why are you asking?" said Taru, blinking. "Do you think any of us are going to have a better course of action? I may be smart but I'm no leader."

"Uh… thanks, Taru," said Ami, raising her eyebrows questioningly. Putting away her cell phone, Ami grabbed her digi-vice and checked the map again. "It's this way… If I'm reading this thing right."

As they walked Ami noticed that Leormon has fallen asleep in her arms. She didn't blame the poor guy, that had been a big battle and she was feeling pretty sleepy herself. The walk wasn't a long one but during that time Ami decided that she was going to change a few things. Maybe she needed a few friends more than Taru. The girl was great and all, but there were some things Ami just couldn't do with her for many different reasons. But for now she would be happy for the friends she had. And she was extremely grateful that she got a Digimon that knew very well that she wasn't going to hide or run away while others were fighting.

'_Leormon is the best Digimon I could ever hope for,'_ thought Ami, smiling as the reached the TV. _'I just hope I can be as great a friend to him as he is to me.'_


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, Kayhera wrote this entire chapter by herself! Because that's the natural order of things... Leormon digivolved... Guess who's turn it is next? Anyways, I hardly gave her any help and I think she did great! I'm really proud of her. She did some really difficult things and even some things she's never done before and it turned out great. So even if you don't like it shut up and leave! I've written digimon fanfics before and i've read some. I've also watched all of Season one and season two (okay, save for one or two episodes) and she's only watched a few and has watched the second half of Fronteir. The only problem is that she's now put the bar up really high and no offense to Kayhera, this sort of writing only happens once every other month or something. Once in a blue moon do you get it more often. So don't keep your hopes up for more great chapters like this from Kayhera. And technically the Digidestined are supposed to show up next chapter but it's a pretty long chapter so you might have to wait two chapters. It's all finished, i just need to edit it and get up the energy to update. I hardly wanted to update this chapter. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I'm not going through this one again... Kayhera? Nope... Well, here we go: I. Don't. Own. Digimon. So good luck finding the person who does... if you do, let me know, i want to give them a piece of my mind!

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**Recap**: Despite the fact that it was the middle of the week and I had History Homework to do, Ami decided we were going to go to the Digital World again. This time from her house, something I've never done before. She got held up picking me up (said she lost track of time but really she ran into this boy named Matt) but we finally managed to get to her house. Boy was it uncomfortable. Luckily Ami figured out how to get to the Digital World and we wandered around. Leormon "accidentally" pushed me into a river we found and just as I was pulling on dry clothes and deciding to go back home Snimon shows up. Ami yells something about not wanting to leave without everybody and Leormon digivolves into Wizardmon, destroying Snimon once and for all! Leormon may be a pain but I'm glad Wizardmon was there to save the day!

Sleeping over at Ami's house was a rather peculiar experience. For the longest time it had always been "Let's sleep over at Taru's house!" Hotaru had never even been to Ami's house before, not even for a few minutes. It was like Ami never wanted her over… but her apartment didn't seem any different than Hotaru's… so what exactly was up with that? And along with that there was the fact that Ami always called her Taru when she preferred to be called Hotaru.

The girls didn't do much out of the ordinary, though they spent half the night talking about the Digital World and Leormon's Digivolution. Well, _Ami_ spent half the night talking… Hotaru just listened. She didn't have much to say on the subject. They knew nothing about the Digital World and nothing about how Digimon evolve, and how can you just chat away about nothing? Ami sure found a way…

Hotaru was completely exhausted when she came home from sleeping over at Ami's. Elecmon wasn't tired at all though, since he spent most of the time sleeping—when he wasn't eating, that is. Hotaru was wishing she had the same amount of energy her Digimon had…

"I'm home…" yawned Hotaru as she walked through her living room to her bedroom. Not that anyone was home to hear her, since her dad worked late on Saturday's. It was just out of habit.

"What sort of things are we going to do now?" asked Elecmon cheerfully. "Or do I have to sleep in your closet again?"

"No, you don't have to sleep in my closet again…" muttered Hotaru, setting her bag down at her bed. Though now she had to figure out where to have Elecmon sleep… She eventually decided that piling a bunch of blankets together near her bed would be good enough. That problem fixed, Hotaru changed into her pajamas and collapsed onto her bed.

"We're just gonna sleep?" asked Elecmon disappointingly.

"I'm sorry… I just really need some proper amounts of sleep or I turn into a zombie… a person my age needs about ten hours of sleep anyways…" muttered Hotaru.

Elecmon blinked a few times before saying, "Don't you usually take that cloth on top of your head off?"

"Wha?" mumbled Hotaru sleepily.

"The purple thing… Isn't it what you call a hat?"

"A hat? Where?" mumbled Hotaru, sitting up. She scratched her head in a thoughtful sort of way, and then her eyes light up. "I can't believe I forgot the bandana…" she muttered exasperatedly, pulling it off and tossing it on her nightstand. But it landed on top of a photograph sitting up on the table. With a small laugh she pulled it off the picture frame and said, "Sorry about that. 'Night, Mom!"

"Huh?" said Elecmon. "What's a 'Mom'? Or is it a person you're talking to? I don't see anyone here though…" he added, turning his head from side to side.

"Mom's not here, she's in the photograph," said Hotaru, pointing to it. "And Mom's not actually her name, it's Natsumi… Don't you have a mother?"

"Um… I don't think so…" said Elecmon bewilderedly.

"Then where do you come from?" asked Hotaru.

"Digi-Eggs!" cried Elecmon.

"Oh…"

"I didn't know you could talk to people who weren't in the room…" said Elecmon thoughtfully. "Sounds like fun!"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you just talk to the 'Mom' in the photo thing?"

"Oh…" said Hotaru, looking downwards and blinking a few times. "You can't actually talk to people in a photograph… It just makes me feel better, I suppose… Like she's really there with me, right now, whenever I need her…"

"Couldn't you just wait until she came back?" said Elecmon, sounding confused by the whole situation.

"No…" said Hotaru slowly. "Sh—she's not coming back…"

"Really?" Now Elecmon sounded surprised. "Why not?"

"Can't Digimon die?" asked Hotaru quietly, turning her head to face Elecmon.

"Um… They just get their data refreshed and they come back as a digi-egg… If I'm remembering right. Though sometimes they're a little different… That happens when your data is restarted!"

"Oh…"

"Hey!" said Elecmon. "When I'm upset I just find a way to distract myself, like seeing how fast I can run or how long I can hold my breath underwater. It sure keeps me preoccupied!"

"Really?" said Hotaru, smiling slightly.

He nodded his head. "What do you do when you're upset?"

"Hmm… Usually I do my math homework. Or English… Or I go over to Ichigo's and play with her cats…"

"Okay…Then let's go do that right now!" said Elecmon, jumping to his feet.

"We can't…" said Hotaru, smiling kindly. "It's too late at night. And I'm too tired to be able to do math homework, plus I'm pretty sure I have none. Thanks anyways…"

"Then we can just do it tomorrow morning," yawned Elecmon, "because now I'm starting to get sleepily…"

"All right then," said Hotaru, lying back down in her bed. "'Night."

"Good night, Taru!"

It felt like right when she rested her head on the pillow she fell asleep. Then Hotaru found herself in a room and felt wide awake—so awake, in fact, that it felt like she had never fallen asleep. She had never had this much energy. And yet…

"What are you doing in here, honey?"

A skinny woman with long black hair was lying in a bed. She was looking up from the magazine she had been reading with warm, cheery brown eyes. A look of surprise was on her face, but she still looked happy none-of-the-less.

"Oh… Dad said you weren't feeling very well and I wanted to check on you…" mumbled Hotaru, walking away from the doorway and closing the door, then putting her hands behind her back shyly. Her hair was left plain and slightly wavy, and she was wearing a black skirt and a green turtleneck.

The woman in bed laughed and set the magazine down in her lap. "It's just a cold! Don't worry about me. You know me, always catching every single cold and flu going around…"

"I was just checking, Mom…" said Hotaru, walking over to the bed. "You sure you're okay, though?" she added, putting a hand on the woman's forehead.

"Don't you have better things to do besides play doctor?" asked Hotaru's Mom, sounding a little amused.

"I was just wondering…" muttered Hotaru, taking the hand away.

"What?"

"You're always getting sick…" said Hotaru quietly.

"So? It's nothing serious, trust me!" said her mom with a smile. "I think I can tell the difference between a cold and pneumonia. Besides," she added, putting a hand on top of Hotaru's head and rubbing her hair a little bit, "You worry too much. Stop worrying about me and worry about your math homework."

Hotaru laughed. "Okay." But then she stopped giggling when she saw her mother suddenly vanish. All that was left was an empty bed with sheets so white and clean it hurt your eyes to look at them. In fact, everything around her was so clean looking… Where was she? The only place she could think of that was so clean was a hospital, but she was just at her house a moment ago…

Then Hotaru started hearing voices. They were too mumbly and quiet to understand what they were saying. When she tried to understand what they were saying a few of them stuck out.

"You still haven't figured out what's wrong, Doctor?"

"I've never seen anything like it… It seems so ordinary, and yet she can't seem to fight it…"

Too many voices… too much overlap… What was going on?

"Do you think she's going to make it?"

They continued to overlap and mutter, and now they were starting to echo. And Hotaru was starting to get a headache.

"Leaving behind a husband and a daughter… so tragic…"

_What's going on!_ Hotaru thought, clenching her head. They kept getting louder and louder… She kept seeing flashes of things she didn't wish to see… Mother lying pale in a bed… No one in the bed… A doctor with a kind face but cold words… A hole in the ground…

"NO!" cried Hotaru, falling to her knees. She shut her eyes but the vision wouldn't go away. "What's going on? I don't want to deal with this right now!"

Hotaru felt a nudge at her stomach area but didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until the feeling would not stop that she looked down at what was there. But then when she looked down she was back in her room, in her own bed, two years older.

"Huh?" Sitting up, she noticed her Digimon trying to bury himself in her blankets. Hearing the sound of Hotaru's cry, Elecmon poked his head out from the blankets and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry… I didn't mean to wake you!"

"What are you doing?" asked Hotaru, scratching her head sleepily.

"Well… You looked like you were having a bad dream," said Elecmon quietly, "so I was going to sit by you and comfort you! Except then you woke up…"

"Oh…" said Hotaru, blinking a few times.

Now she just felt weird, like she wanted to cry but she wasn't really sad. She didn't know what to think of it. When Elecmon looked up at her with his eyes wide with worriment and fear or looking like he thought he might have done something wrong the feeling Hotaru had just became stronger, and she got the sudden urge to…

"Thanks!" she cried, picking up Elecmon and hugging him.

"Need…air…But you're w-welcome?"

* * *

"Where are we going?" whined Elecmon for the—well, Hotaru had lost count after fifteen. 

"I told you, it's a surprise!" teased Hotaru, poking his nose playfully.

"Hey, that tickled…"

The two were walking near the town park. Elecmon was in Hotaru's school bag and Hotaru was wearing a purple sweater to keep out the cold and her purple bandana to go with. Hotaru really wanted to take Elecmon to this certain place she always went to but never told anyone about. Not even Ami… not even Ichigo. She wasn't even totally sure why she wanted to bring Elecmon… But it felt like the right thing to do. And the easiest way to help get done what Hotaru wanted done. But Elecmon was obviously the curious type and was driving her insane with his constant questions, like…

"How long is it going to take to get there, at least?" cried Elecmon desperately.

"Talking to a 'stuffed animal' in my bag must look very strange…" muttered Hotaru. To Elecmon she said, "Will you shut up? We're almost there!"

"According to you…" muttered Elecmon.

"Hey, whatta ya know? We're here!" cried Hotaru, clapping her hands together.

"Where are we?" asked Elecmon. It was a strange field with perfectly smooth rocks lined together in nice, straight rows. Some of these strange boulders had stuff piled next to them like flowers, but most were left rather plain. They even had funny carvings on them as well.

"It's rather empty today…" muttered Hotaru. "Wait, what am I saying, of course it's always empty! But sometimes there's at least one family somewhere…"

"You have yet to answer my question…" said Elecmon.

"And I have yet to feel like telling you," said Hotaru teasingly. "Okay, I always get lost… It's by this large cherry blossom tree… Oh, there we go!"

So then Hotaru rushed over to one of the very peculiar boulders and sat down in front of it, setting down her bag so Elecmon could get out if he wished. He did, but he still didn't get what was going on.

"So… Here's my mom!" said Hotaru cheerfully, clapping her hands together.

"Your mom's a rock?" blinked Elecmon.

"_No_!" cried Hotaru, trying hard not to laugh. "This is a grave marker."

"So your mom's a grave marker?"

"No…" muttered Hotaru, starting to lose her patience. "Look, here we bury the dead and put these stone things near their burial site so we know where they are!"

"Oooh…" said Elecmon. "So people don't turn back to Digi-eggs when they die?"

"No," said Hotaru, thankful they were getting somewhere.

"Hi, Hotaru's mom!" called Elecmon to the grave marker. He waited for a response but none seem to come. "No one's saying anything!"

"Because grave markers don't talk!" said Taru.

"Then why are we here?" asked Elecmon, obviously not getting it.

"Well…" Hotaru hesitated. "It's kind of like with the photograph… It's a way I can talk to my mom so it doesn't feel so weird. And hopefully she can hear me from here, even if she can't respond."

"I thought you said she was gone," said Elecmon.

"Well, some people say that there's a place called Heaven… It's up in the sky. That's where all the dead people go. I don'' really believe in that sorta thing but… It's nice to pretend."

"Well, I think there _is_ a special place they go to, and I think you're mom _can_ hear you!" said Elecmon fervently.

"Thanks…" said Hotaru, a little taken aback by the energy in her Digimon but otherwise grateful. "Anyways… Hi mom! Hope the afterlife isn't being too dull for you… Oh yeah…" Picking up Elecmon, she said, "I got a Digimon! That should interest you. You were always reading those fantasy books all the time. You're probably jealous because I get to go to this amazing new world and you don't… Yeah, Digimon get their own little world called the Digital World! You get to it with a computer… Just like some Sci Fi thing on TV, huh? You always liked those…"

"You know…" said Elecmon, still being held up by Hotaru. "…I'm kinda hungry again…"

"You and food…" muttered Taru, turning Elecmon around to glare at him playfully. Then to her mom she cried, "Elecmon's worse than Dad!"

"Does Hotaru's dad like to eat too?" asked Elecmon.

"Yup…" said Hotaru dully. "All this mentioning of food is making me hungry… I guess you'd rather have me hanging around with all my friends instead of talking to you, huh, Mom? Though why you continue to think I have tons of friends beats me…"

Suddenly Taru could hear her mother say in her head, _"You seriously worry way too much, dear. Just smile and be yourself! You're this wonderful, bright girl, but you never smile. If you did it more often you'd have tons of friends!"_

_But it's not that easy, Mom! People at school don't find a girl who finds her studies more interesting than anything else fun to hang around! And I can't talk to anyone anyways…_

A growling noise interrupted her thoughts. She looked up at Elecmon, who she was still holding up, but he just shook his head. "That was _your_ stomach, not mine! But let's not change the subject, because I'm hungry too!"

"Bye, Mom!" cried Hotaru, standing up and picking up her bag. "I guess I have to fix Elecmon's empty stomach…"

"You're hungry too!" cried Elecmon, but Hotaru just shoved him in her bag and ignored the comment.

* * *

"Hey, are you busy?" 

"Why?"

"Wanna visit the Digital World?"

"Hey, that's my line!"

Hotaru couldn't remember a time where _she_ called Ami. It was always Ami calling her, not the other way around! But she had gotten this sudden urge to visit the Digital World, yet didn't want to go with just Elecmon… She'd like Ami to be with her as well…

"Who cares about who's line is who's?" said Hotaru hurriedly. "Can you come or not? Well, you don't have to if you don't want to…"

"Of course I do!" cried Ami on the other line. "Why would I not want to go?"

"Um…" said Hotaru, trying to think of reasons why.

"Oh, whatever…" said Ami exasperatedly. "So my house or your house?"

"Er…"

"Your house then…" said Ami with a small sigh.

"Sorry! It's just weird that now I'm going to your house… But we do know for a fact that my computer gets us to the Digital World, so it is the best conclusion…" muttered Hotaru.

"We did go to the Digital World through my computer once… Anyways, so see you in a few!" said Ami. "And don't start the laundry while you wait for me. You'll end up not finishing all of it and want to wait for it to finish instead of going to the Digital World…"

"Who said I was going to do laundry?" cried Hotaru, trying to sound innocent. Maybe instead she could do the dishes…

"Whatever. Bye!" cried Ami. Then there was a click and then a buzz as the line went dead.

"She always just hangs up with no warning…" said Hotaru thoughtfully, looking down at the headset to her phone.

"Who are we talking to now?" asked Elecmon.

"_Were_… and it was Ami…" muttered Hotaru, wandering over to the kitchen.

"Huh-huh-huh?" cried Elecmon, but Hotaru didn't hear him. With a yelp he cried, "Wait up!" and rushed over to the kitchen door before it closed on him.

Vast… so vast… Something was missing.

"You don't notice it?" asked Hotaru.

"What?" said Ami.

"This!" cried Hotaru, spreading her arms out at the surroundings. "There's, like, no living things! At all! Where are the organisms?"

"Um… We're completely surrounded by trees," said Ami. "And shrubbery, and grass…"

"That's nice… What about actual animals?" cried Hotaru. "I mean, there's more than just two Digimon in this whole world, right?"

"What about the one that attacked us the other day?" Ami pointed out.

"Oh, please. There should be more than _that_."

"Maybe they're just shy."

"Judging by our Digimon, they're perfectly fine with the presence of humans," said Hotaru stubbornly.

"Oh, just drop it already!" snapped Ami. "Who cares? They're probably on the other side of the world—or, like I said, they're afraid and hiding from us!"

"But what if something bad happened…" mumbled Hotaru. "It makes you think. I mean, is it normal for Digimon to attack us?"

"We haven't been attacked enough times to need to stress over it!" cried Ami. "Maybe the Digimon was just having a really bad day and took it out on us. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with the Digital World!"

"I don't know…Having they been doing it _lately_?" said Hotaru. "Hey, Elecmon, what do you think?"

"Eh?" said Elecmon.

"Well? Is there anything wrong with your planet lately?"

"Er… sure…"

"You don't _know_?" cried Hotaru.

"Well, I suppose…" muttered Elecmon. "I don't really pay attention to those sort of things…"

"What about you, Leormon?" asked Hotaru sweetly, kneeling down to meet Leormon's eye level. The only problem with this was that the girls had been walking, and with Hotaru kneeling by Leormon Ami had to stop in her tracks, lest she run into her friend.

"Watch where you sit!" cried Ami.

"Well?" said Hotaru eagerly.

But Leormon wasn't listening. Instead he was looking off to the distance with a serious expression on his face. Noticing this, Elecmon looked towards the same direction and tried to see what it was.

"Don't tell me…" muttered Ami, eyes wide.

A giant insectoid-like creature came flying right above them. At first it looked like it was just passing by, but then it soared a circle before coming back towards the group, crying out the attack, "_Poison Powder_!"

"Eeee!" cried Hotaru, covering her face.

Jumping into action, Ami pushed Hotaru and the Digimon out of the way just in time for them to dodge the attack. Hotaru sighed, not liking the fact that her clothes were now dirty from the poky bush they fell into.

"What do we do _now_?" cried Hotaru.

"Fight it, of course!" cried Ami.

"Maybe we should look into this a bit more until we just start attacking…" muttered Hotaru.

Ami stood up, putting her hands on her hips in annoyance. With a sigh she pulled Hotaru up and said, "We don't have time to figure things out. We just need to figure out how to get to safety."

"So you want us to just run away?" cried Hotaru.

"Oh, so now you want to fight?" said Ami.

The Digimon was already coming by them for another attack. Hotaru gasped, unsure of what to do. As if right on cue, Elecmon rushed over and cried out, "_Super Thunder Attack_!" and a burst of energy went to the insectoid Digimon.

"I don't think that kind of attack is good enough to defeat Flymon," said Leormon.

"Ergh!" Hotaru clenched her fists. "Maybe I should just join the Kendo club. That way I could fight the Digimon on my own with my own katana!"

"Do they even have a Kendo club at that weird school of yours?" asked Ami.

"There's got to be something we can do!" said Hotaru, looking around for something to use as a weapon. Not that there was anything besides twigs or stones around…

Flymon made a few more attacks but the group was able to jump out of the way and didn't get hit. Elecmon and Leormon's attacks just weren't cutting it, and everyone seemed to have forgotten about Wizardmon. It kept flying lower and lower in an attempt to get one of its attacks to hit the group. Then Flymon quickly stopped in mid air and hovered as it tried a different way to attack.

"_Brown Stinger_!"

This time its aim was good—the attack was heading right towards them! Hotaru did the first thing that popped into her head, which was to push everyone out of the way. But she forgot to get herself out of the way and didn't realize this until the attack was moments away from where she was standing. But she didn't think to get out of the way. What would have been the point? It was going way to fast for her to jump out of the way. But at least the others were okay.

Hotaru clenched her eyes shut, awaiting the worst, but then the hand that was near her Digi-vise felt hot. Opening her eyes and looking down, Hotaru noticed that it was glowing. And then suddenly this large red dinosaur was blocking the attack and crying out, "_Blaze Blast_!"

"What the…" muttered Hotaru, looking back towards Ami, Elecmon, and Leormon. Except Elecmon was no longer there, and Ami's eyes were wide.

"Where's Elecmon?" cried Hotaru.

"Right in front of you, dummy!" cried Ami.

"Huh?" said Hotaru, looking back to the front.

"_Blaze Blast_!" seemed to have done some harm to Flymon, but then he was back in the air and getting ready for another attack, but this time directed to… the red dinosaur.

"Elecmon! Is that you?" Hotaru called out.

"I'm Tyrannomon now!" exclaimed the red dinosaur cheerfully. Then he dodged a blow from Flymon and hit him back. "_Scratch_!"

"But… that'd have to mean…" muttered Hotaru. Then she looked back up and called, "You Digivolved, didn't you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" cried Ami. "Now get out of the way!"

"Oh… yeah!"

"Are you sure he'll be okay? I wanna help…" muttered Hotaru gloomily behind the bushes.

"I think he'll do just fine," said Ami sweetly. "Isn't that why he Digivolved?"

Sure enough, a few moments later Flymon had been destroyed.

"You were awesome!" cried Hotaru, hugging Tyrannomon awkwardly. Then there was a bright light from Tyrannomon and he de-Digivolved back to Elecmon, so she was able to hug him better. "But did you have to kill the thing?"

"Um… sorry… But Digimon don't die, remember?" said Elecmon.

"Right…" muttered Hotaru, looking upwards exasperatedly.

"Crap…" muttered Ami, glancing at her cell phone. "You should get bright ideas to go to the Digital World earlier in the day!"

"Um…" blinked Hotaru.

"It's late!" said Ami loudly, waving her cell phone. "We should leave!"

"I'm not deaf," muttered Hotaru, grabbing her bag. With a smile she pulled out an apple and gave it to Elecmon before he could whine for food.

"This could have been done a lot quicker if Leormon had Digivolved too…" muttered Ami.

"Tyrannomon not good enough for you?" said Hotaru.

"Oh, shush! Now, I think we should be going that way…"


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay in a post. But as a bonus this is an extra long chapter and believe me when i say that they meet the other digidestined in this chapter... This is about the only chapter where you will see any resemblence to the original plotline of season two and even that has been changed (we didn't do the DNA digivolution stuff because that would have been too much for the first meeting of the digidestined). Now it changes completely. No international digidestined. No Arukenimon. No original zero two stuff. But it would be boring if we went completely by the season. If you want that kind of stuff go see our fourth season fanfic "Unlock your Spirit". Kayhera posted that one

Disclaimer: I own Ami, Kayhera owns Taru, we own the plot. End of story.

* * *

**Recap: **Apparantly our Taru prefers to be called "Hotaru". Who knew. Well she had this freaky dream when she went home about her mom (who is dead). The next day she took Elecmon to see the grave. Kind of a creepy thing to do with your Digimon but I could think of worse things to do. The next day she asks ME if I wanted to go to Digi-World. Is she crazy or something? Of course I do! Nothing seems to be happening and suddenly Flymon shows up and we completely forget that Leormon can digivolve to Wizardmon. Luckily when Taru practically sacrafised herself for her friends Elecmon digivolved and saved the day. Unfortunatly... Flymon was destroyed just like Snimon.

"Please, please, please, please!" begged Ami, standing in her living room while talking on the phone with Taru. "Please?"

"You're worse than Elecmon when he's hungry!" cried Taru. She sighed and a timer went off in the background. "Oh, Christmas cookies are done. Be right back."

"If you say so…" muttered Ami as she heard the other girl set down the phone.

She turned to look at Leormon who was staring at the TV Ami had left on. It was strange because he didn't seem confused or fascinated by it but just stood there looking at it. But it was as if he knew she was looking at him, because Leormon looked up and blinked at her. With a yawn he walked over and jumped up on a chair to be nearer to her height.

"You could just do Christmas in the Digital World," he suggested. "Then Elecmon and I could do something too."

"We could do that too, I guess," said Ami, holding the phone to her shoulder so it wouldn't be on her ear. For being home alone, Taru made an awful lot of noise. Probably so she didn't realize how empty the house was. Ami sighed and her head dropped.

"You okay?" asked Leormon, licking his paw. Ami looked up smiling.

"Yeah! Look, the concert isn't until late so we can still do some things in the Digital World!" said Ami. "What do Digimon do for Christmas?"

"Nothing," said Leormon. When Ami looked at him questioningly he continued. "We don't really have Christmas like you do. We don't play in the snow, spend time with our families and exchange presents. Mostly we spend it like any other day. At least I do."

"Oh…. Kay…" muttered Ami, turning away and moving the phone back to her ear very slowly…

"Back!" said Taru happily. "Too bad when I bring the cookies over they'll be cold…"

"Microwave!" cried Ami.

"You're weird…" muttered Taru. "Anyways, no! I don't do concerts. Why can't we just spend Christmas in the Digital World?"

"Because… because… there's a cool concert!" cried Ami. "And I know the lead singer. His name is Matt and he goes to my school… which just makes it even cooler."

"Whatever…" sighed Taru. "I guess concerts are normally at night."

"Except for the lame concerts," said Ami. "Not that I've ever heard of one… Okay, so we'll go to the Digital World until we need to go to the concert? Okay, sounds good, see you when you come over. Bye!"

"Hey! Wait…" came Taru's muffled voice as Ami hung up the phone.

"I hate having to do that," muttered Ami. "But if I don't she'll go on and on about something! Or fold clothes and space out…"

"She's just not a phone person," said Leormon, standing up and jumping off the chair. "Nothing to stress about."

"If you say so…" said Ami, raising her eyebrows. She walked over to the refrigerator and opened it to find something to eat. Except it was completely empty save for a twelve pack of beer. Suddenly annoyed, she closed the refrigerator really quickly; walked over to the coat rack, pulled on her coat and grabbed up some extra change. "I'm going to the store to pick up some food. If I'm not back in thirty minutes I've gone to pick up Taru. Stay out of sight."

"Oh… okay…" said Leormon, his ears drooping as Ami practically stormed out of the apartment. Then slowly he turned around and went back to watching TV.

* * *

"The view would be really nice," said Ami, holding her hand above her eyes to keep the glare of the sun off, "if it weren't for those black spires!"

The small group was spending their couple of free hours in the Digital World. Elecmon had led them off to a certain valley to show them the view. Apparently there were some very pretty trees and flowers. Which was true… except there were these black pillars throughout the valley. Taru and Ami turned toward Elecmon to see him staring in shock at his beautiful valley. Leormon gave a big yawn and started down into the valley.

"Where are you going?" asked Ami, running after him. She felt a little uneasy leaving Taru behind. But since Elecmon could digivolve she supposed he would come through if there was any trouble.

"Down there," said Leormon simply. He looked over his shoulder, smiling. "It's not like fighting a Digimon, but I could still knock down a good number of those spires before we have to go."

"Oh… okay…" said Ami, still quite oblivious as to what they were doing. When they got to the floor of the valley Leormon digivolved into Wizardmon. He quickly demolished the first spire and moved onto another one.

"Wait up!" cried Taru, running down.

"You're… you're destroying them?" said Elecmon, his eyes bright with tears.

"I think you're pathetic," muttered Ami, walking over and hitting him on the head. Elecmon looked up at her, sat down and pretended to cry. Despite this Taru pushed her away and picked up the Digimon.

"Why'd you hit him? He didn't deserve that!" snapped Taru.

"Oh, never mind," muttered Ami, turning away and crossing her arms. "We should go catch up with Wizardmon," she added with a sigh.

"Yeah!" said Elecmon, his eyes _amazingly_ dry. Ami rolled her eyes as he ran into the trees following the rubble piles. The two girls followed behind at a much more moderate pace. When they caught up there were only about three more control spires left in the valley.

"I want to destroy some!" whined Elecmon. "Don't hog them all Wizardmon!"

Turning back around with a smile, Wizardmon floated back toward Ami and landed on the ground.

"I was just getting tired anyways," shrugged Wizardmon. Ami raised her eyebrow at him, then turned away putting a hand to her head.

'_Wizardmon has more of a personality than Leormon,'_ thought Ami, looking up at the sky. _'It's almost annoying!'_

"Elecmon Digivolve!" cried the small Digimon, standing tall. When nothing happened, he blinked and looked around. He tried again two more times before he turned around confused and close to actual tears this time. "I can't digivolve! Why can't I digivolve? Why?"

"Maybe you're hungry," suggested Taru. "We'll just go back home and eat cookies before the concert…"

"Or," said Ami, grinning evilly, "the first time was just a fluke and you just can't digivolve."

"Will you leave him alone!" cried Taru, rolling her eyes. "Why do you have to be so mean to him?"

"Because I can get a reaction out of him," said Ami, shrugging. "It's no fun being mean to Leormon… Wizardmon… whatever! Anyways, he doesn't do anything. Elecmon does!"

"Err!" cried Taru angrily, putting her hands in fists.

Before anything else was said things like large needles came flying out of the air and Ami found herself in the bushes again. She got up, grumbling at Wizardmon. But when a large serpent like Digimon flew over them she completely forgot that she would have to pick twigs out of her hair again.

"Who's that?" asked Taru, as the Digimon turned around.

"Airdramon," said Wizardmon. "They usually fly in groups but even then they aren't that much of a problem. But this one is all by itself…"

"Okay, all the Digimon seem to be doing really weird things lately!" cried Ami, putting her hands on her hips.

"That's why you're here as the Digidestined," said Wizardmon.

"Now I really need to digivolve!" cried Elecmon, tears running down his cheeks. Ami wasn't sure if they were fake this time or not.

"_Thunder Ball_!" cried Wizardmon, hitting Airdramon right on the nose. The Digimon gave a cry and turned away. "I wish that would work…"

"Look, if they're not going to give up then I think we're much more important than just one Digimon!" said Ami.

Still Wizardmon hesitated the next time Airdramon came around and even the third. Starting to get frustrated, Ami looked around for _some_ reason why the Digimon would be attacking them. It didn't look like its home was near by because if it was there would be more than one attacking. She didn't know what Digimon ate, but she doubted Airdramon came here for food. That was when she noticed one of the spires was glowing red.

"Wizardmon!" cried Ami, rushing out of the trees and pointing toward the glowing spire. "Destroy _that_!"

"What are you doing?" cried Taru. "You could have just pointed it out from the cover of the trees!"

In answer Ami picked up a rock and threw it at Airdramon. The Digimon hesitated half way towards Wizardmon and Ami prayed that Wizardmon wouldn't try attacking. Luckily he didn't and Airdramon turned around to chase after Ami. Then she realized that she had no idea what she was going to do about the attacking Digimon. When the Digimon sent flying needles at her, she cried out and hid behind a spire. She heard it start to crack but didn't have time to check it out as Airdramon came around her hiding spot. Luckily just then Wizardmon destroyed the glowing spire and Elecmon digivolved into Tyrannomon.

"_Blaze Blast!_" cried the large red dinosaur Digimon. The attack went right over Ami's head and hit Airdramon straight on. The Digimon seemed to burn for a little while and then the blast went away. Airdramon hovered for a while covered in burns before giving a cry and flying off.

"I think that's enough excitement for today," said Ami, sinking to the ground.

"Are you okay?" asked Wizardmon, floating over to her.

"Yeah… fine… great…" said Ami, taking a deep breath. "TYRANNOMON! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING NEXT TIME!"

* * *

But the large Digimon just ignored her, destroying a second spire and Wizardmon finished up the final one.

Half an hour later Ami and Taru were headed toward the concert in town, carrying large bags with their Digimon in them. Taru also had a book. A history book of all things… One of the few things Ami was actually good at because she could just memorize things. But she was planning on confiscating the thing when they got to the concert. For now she would let the girl feel safe knowing she had a book with her… It was pretty uneventful at first. They gave their tickets at the front, they pushed through a ton of fan girls to get some seats and after waiting quite a few minutes the band came out and started. Ami was distracted by the fan girls so much that she hardly paid attention to Taru reading. Not that the girl's eyes were moving that much…

And then the Digimon showed up. Right in the middle of the chorus Dark-Tyrannomon and Bakemon burst through the back of the stage. The ceiling started to crumble and the fan girls started screaming. Clenching her jaw in anger, Ami got to her feet.

"Head toward the exits!" she shouted, but was drowned out by all the other sounds. Starting to get more annoyed, she took a deep breath. "HEY!" The people around her stopped to look at her. "Stop running around in circles like a group of idiots and get OUT!"

In the way that girls do, they continued to scream but did exactly as she told them to do. Taru was on her feet, too and letting the Digimon out of the bags. She was starting to put her book away when Ami grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out. About two seconds after they left the spot part of the ceiling fell on top of their seats.

"Just like in the movies!" said Ami with a grin.

"You're weird…" muttered Taru.

"I can't digivolve!" said Leormon, nudging Ami's leg.

She blinked and looked up. Almost immediately her eyes landed upon a glowing red spire like the ones in the Digital World. Eyes narrowing, she picked up Leormon and walked farther away from the crumbling building.

"Come on…" she muttered, walking toward the spire.

"What are we supposed to do if the Digimon can't digivolve?" asked Taru worriedly, sticking close by.

"How would I know?" said Ami, stopping suddenly. Taru almost lost her balance stopping. "You're the smart one! Come up with some scientifical theory we can use!"

"Me?" said Taru in a high pitched voice. "But… but… but…"

"_Eagle Eye_!"

Two beams of red flew across the sky and hit the spire, and it fell in a pile, raising up a cloud of dust.

"Was that… somebody on our side?" muttered Ami, turning around slowly.

Coming toward them flew a giant red eagle with armor plating on its head. With it flew a white sphinx and a Pegasus. Just when she was getting over the shock of the Digimon carrying _people_ another blue Digimon covered in black armor ran over. Sitting on this Digimon were too kids: a boy wearing goggles on his head and a guy Ami recognized as Ken Ichijouji carrying a green caterpillar Digimon.

"What the…" started Taru.

"There are other digidestined!" said Elecmon as if it were obvious.

"Hey," said the boy with the goggles. "What are you doing?"

"Um…" said Ami, looking around in a thoughtful way. "Fixing a large pest problem."

"Must you be sarcastic?" asked Leormon.

"Oh shut up mister Let's-Push-Taru-In-The-River…" muttered Ami.

"Perhaps I should digivolve?" said Leormon, ignoring her comment and jumping out of her arms.

"Yeah, sure, you do that…" said Ami, rolling her eyes. "I'll freak out about kids I don't know being digidestined!"

"You're weird…" sighed Taru.

"I've heard that one," said Ami, grinning.

She was sort of starting to feel sorry for the other kids who were staring at her and Taru in different forms of curiosity and confusion. Actually, the goggle guy was the most confused out of the group but he didn't look like he was that intelligent to begin with. The kid's Digimon were throwing the attacking Digimon into a lap top that a red head kid was holding. Ami recognized him as the computer club president but couldn't remember his name. Just as Leormon digivolved the brown haired girl that had been riding the sphinx gasped.

"Wizardmon?" she cried.

"Yeah, that's his name!" said Ami in a half proud way. "At least, that's what Elecmon called him."

When the girl called out his name Wizardmon paused but didn't turn around. He finally moved off into the fight and disappeared from view. Ami bit her lip and then rushed forward a little bit.

"Hey! Wizardmon!" she shouted. "We're supposed to be a team! Don't go where I can't see you."

"I know you!" said a familiar voice. Ami glanced over her shoulder and saw Matt walk over.

"Wait…" said Ami, turning around and blinking at him a couple of times. "_You're_ a digidestined too?"

"Ironic, huh?" said Matt, grinning.

"How do you know Matt?" asked a boy who was probably Matt's brother. They had the same hair color and eyes. Except this boy had to be younger.

"We go to school together…" muttered Ami. "My name is Ami Nakahara, by the way! And this is my friend, Hotaru Minamoto… But I just call her Taru."

"Yeah… you…" said Taru, rolling her eyes.

"But Taru is so much cuter!" giggled Ami.

"I'm Davis," said the goggle boy. "This is Ken, Yolei," he pointed out a girl with purple hair, "Kari," the brown haired girl waved, "Cody," pointing out a small kid, "And TS…"

"It's TK…" muttered the boy who looked a lot like Matt.

"Looks like we're all done here," sighed the computer guy, closing his laptop.

"I feel bad…" said Ami, grinning sheepishly and putting her hand behind her head. "I can't remember your name."

"Izzy," said the kid. Another boy and a girl with red hair joined them. "This is Tai and Sora."

"You play tennis!" said Ami.

"You like tennis?" said Sora.

"No… Just some of those random things I know," said Ami, shrugging. "The more I know the more things I have to talk with my dad about."

"And yet you're failing…" said Taru, shaking her head sadly.

"Wizardmon!" cried a new voice. Ami turned around to see a white cat Digimon with purple stripes and green gloves staring at her own Digimon.

"Okay, why do they know you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and staring at Wizardmon. He ignored her and continued to de-digivolve. "You're awfully moody for a guy with little emotion."

"Well, this is fun!" said Taru. Everybody stared at her and she blushed. "What? I wanted to say something because I haven't done a whole bunch."

"Yeah… oh yeah, I was going to say something a while back!" said Ami, snapping her fingers. "So was another Digimon coming to destroy the black… thing… your scientifical theory?"

"Huh?" said Taru, blinking. "N-no… How does that make sense? And 'scientifical' isn't a word!"

"You were reading a history book, not a dictionary!" said Ami. "I don't think you've fallen _that_ low… yet. Besides, if you were going to do that, maybe you would read a computer manual first."

"So when did _you_ become digidestined?" said Davis, pointing an accusing finger at Ami.

"Um… four days ago!" said Ami, counting on her finger. "Ha, I'm smart!"

"Really?" said Matt. "I would think you two became digidestined at the same time you became friends. Except for Davis, Cody and Yolei we all became digidestined four years ago."

"Um… well…" said Ami, feeling uncomfortable. "Other… things… made us friends. Can we talk about something else? I know! Want to come over to my house to talk about this?"

"Um… what?" said Taru, but nobody really seemed to notice.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Leormon, keeping his back purposefully on the cat Digimon and Kari.

"Huh?" said Ami, scratching her head. "Oh… yeah… Well, even if my mom comes home early she'll be too drunk to notice a bunch of Digimon."

"I thought you didn't want people around your mom…" muttered Leormon. Indignantly, Ami bent down and picked up the Digimon.

"Oh, shut up!" she murmured. "Besides, my place is probably closer. Definitely closer than Taru's."

"Sounds good to me!" said Davis. "Party at the weird chick's house!"

"Ami, Ami Nakahara," she said, whacking the kid over the head. "You're a disgrace to goggles everywhere!"

"I agree," said Yolei and Kari nodded.

"Awww… come on Kari…" whined Davis, frowning.

* * *

"Yay!" said Ami, throwing open her apartment door. "My house. And it's actually clean because me and Leormon were bored and so we… cleaned!"

"You… cleaned…" said Taru, blinking. "What is wrong with you?"

"Huh?" said Ami, setting out some chips on her dining room table and turning back toward Taru. "Oh, the cleaning stuff? You use to bug me about it all the time. Why is it bad that now I _am_ cleaning?"

"Because you _don't_ clean!" said Taru exasperatedly.

"What's wrong with not cleaning?" asked Davis, popping over Ami's shoulder holding a bag of chips. "I never clean my room and I'm just fine!"

"Except for when I get lost!" said his blue Digimon, Veemon. "I understand being lazy, but this is just pathetic."

"Well, Davis is pathetic," said Tai, putting a hand on the kid's shoulder.

Laughing slightly, Ami slid backwards away from Davis and Tai. Taru had been swept into a conversation with Izzy about relative law of animation or whatever the hell it was. Like Ami really knew because she couldn't hear them. She just knew they were talking and Taru was using her hands… like, a lot. When Ami turned around she ran smack into Matt… which was embarrassing because he hadn't been moving at all.

"You tend to do that," laughed Matt, reaching out a hand to catch her before she fell.

"Unfortunately…" muttered Ami, pushing her red hair out of her eyes.

"Hey, there are worse people to bump into!" joked Matt, putting a hand in his pocket.

Just then the phone rang and Ami gasped. When it rang a second time a smile spread across her face. She gave a quick "one minute" and ran over to the phone and picking it up in the middle of the third ring.

"Hi Daddy!" cried Ami and she could hear, suddenly, all the conversations stopping to listen in. Not that she really cared.

"How do you know it's me?" came a male voice over the phone.

"Who else calls on Christmas?" said Ami, rolling her eyes. "Speaking of… when you coming over?"

"I don't know," sighed Mr. Nakahara. "It's really busy in the office. But I'm trying, I really am."

"Sure…" muttered Ami. "But it's not like I can buy a plane ticket over to America. I'm broke… plus America really isn't my place."

"I could buy the ticket," said Mr. Nakahara. "I just have no free time. I'll let you know when I'm coming over. In the mean time, how's your Christmas been?"

"Me and Taru went to a concert…" said Ami.

"Really? How was it?"

"Oh…" said Ami, grinning at the group. "The band really brought down the house."

"That good, huh?" laughed Mr. Nakahara.

"I've got tons to tell you," said Ami, "but it's really not an over the phone thing."

"Hmmmm…" murmured Mr. Nakahara. "Guess you really want me to come over, don't you?"

"That obvious?" laughed Ami. "But I've got friends over so…"

"Friends? As in plural? When did that happen?" asked Mr. Nakahara, sincerely surprised.

"What? I can't have any friends other than Taru?" cried Ami, trying to make it sound like she was just joking.

"I didn't say that…" started Mr. Nakahara.

"Bye Daddy, I love you!" said Ami sweetly, hanging up the phone.

"You sure hang up on people a lot," said Leormon.

"And I've been on the phone, what, twice since I've met you?" said Ami, rolling her eyes.

"No, three times!" said Leormon. "You're mom called you on your cell phone when we came back from the Digital World the first time."

"Oh yeah…" muttered Ami, looking up at the ceiling. "Like I ever remember _those _conversations."

"Your parents are divorced?" asked Matt simply.

"Yeah, lovely ain't it!" said Ami, throwing her hands in the air. "Okay, sorry… It normally doesn't bother me…"

"Why wouldn't it bother you?" asked TK. "It's actually normal to feel upset…"

"Whatever," muttered Ami, not feeling at all in the mood to pour out all her feelings about her parents and why she wouldn't let it bother her.

She let her eyes wander around the room so she wouldn't have to meet eye contact. Some of the conversations had started up again (mostly Taru's and Izzy's) but it was much more quiet. Just then Ami noticed Elecmon with his head stuck in a chip bag, probably attempting to eat the last of the crumbs. An evil smile spreading across her face and she snuck up behind the Digimon. With a cry she grabbed Elecmon around the stomach from behind. The Digimon gave a half scream and struggled out of her hands. He hid behind Taru who put her hands on her hips. Ami stood up straight laughing and then stifled it when she saw Taru's face.

"Sorry, sorry!" she said, putting her hands up. "I couldn't help it, I really couldn't…"

"Pick on your own Digimon!" snapped Taru.

"But… it was funny," said Leormon, jumping up on the table. "Though after she already picked on him three times today… it was mean."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," said Ami, crossing her arms. "I would say maybe I should get another Digimon but I doubt you can just trade Digimon. Besides," she added, turning back to grin at Leormon, "you're way cooler than any other Digimon I could get. I mean, what other Digimon digivolve into a wizard?"

"Um…" said Leormon, looking around as if to try and find one. "I guess only me…"

"Speaking of," said Tai, "would you happen to remember anything before you met Ami?"

"Who?" said Leormon, blinking and jumping into Ami's arms. "Me? Um… maybe?"

"Maybe?" said TK. "That's not an answer. Do you remember working for Myotismon? Gatomon? Kari? Anything?"

"Yes…" muttered Leormon.

"What's so wrong about that?" said Ami, blinking. "You can have more than one friend too!"

"Er…" said Leormon, blushing slightly. "Thanks? I guess…"

"I guess we… kind of… got that settled," said Tai, scratching his head.

As everybody started laughing Ami heard the door open. Eyes wide she saw her mother walk in and set her purse on the kitchen counter. She opened the refrigerator and Ami was waiting for her to pull out a beer… except she just pulled out a can of soda. Turning around she smiled at all the kids.

"I thought you were going to a concert," said Wakahisa-san, opening the soda can. "Didn't realize you were going to bring the party here or I would have gone shopping!"

"I already did that Mother," sighed Ami.

"Okay… when did you have so many friends?" she asked. "It's nice, but you only ever talk about Taru so…"

"We were just going," said Matt, pushing TK toward the door.

"We were?" said Davis.

Yolei hit him over the head and assisted Sora and Tai in herding the others toward the front door. A few people said some good-byes. When Taru started to leave Ami caught her by the arm.

"Hey, it's kind of late!" she said. "Don't you think you should probably go home tomorrow?"

"I have family too!" said Taru. "I ride the subway all the time. I'll be _fine_!"

"Hey!" said Davis who had escaped from Tai. "Ken here has to ride the subway, so they can go together!"

"Oh… okay…" said Ami, biting her lip. "I'd still rather… Well, bye!"

"Bye!" said Taru, waving and scooping up Elecmon. At the door she turned back around. "You owe me a history book!"

"I'm broke!" Ami cried back as the door shut. Then she sighed. Her mother started to open her mouth to say something but Ami walked toward her room. "I'm tired. Talk to you tomorrow if you're not busy… Night!"

"Good-night!" said Wakahisa-san, finishing her soda and walking to bed as well.


End file.
